There have been a number of proposals for postage systems to be used in the mailing or shipping of parcels. A comprehensive or universal system must be sufficiently flexible to handle a number of variables which are involved, for example, the weight of each parcel must be determined with reasonable accuracy and speed and the distances between the original site and the various destinations must be determined in order to identify the appropriate postal zone for each parcel. After this is accomplished, the postage applicable to each parcel must be determined on the basis of its weight and destination or postal zone. Having determined the applicable postage, a postage meter, or the like, is then operated to issue a stamp imprinted with that postage; the stamp being adhered to or imprinted upon the parcel.
A system which fully satisfies the above requirements is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,770,945 issued to Dlugos et al, Nov. 6, 1973. There is disclosed in said patent an apparatus for interfacing an electronic postage metering system with a conventional mechanical postage meter. Separate position encoders translate the digit positions of the various postage digit selector arms of the postage meter into coded digits which are compared with the corresponding postage digits stored in the system postage output register. The postage digit selector arms are separately driven through their various digit positions, and as each assumes the digit positions corresponding to the associated digits in the postage register, they are decoupled from their respective drives. When all have been positioned to set up a digit by digit comparison with the postage held in the postage register, the postage meter is triggered to issue a postage imprinted stamp.
Although the above mentioned system meets the requirements set forth, there are certain areas where improvements can be made. For example, the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,770,945 involves the use of electronic clutches which are engageable with a drive shaft which is constantly driven. This obviously involves a waste of energy as the drive shaft is energized whether or not the meter is in use. Additionally, the postage meter reseting means is unidirectional, thereby resulting in wasted motion.